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ISC Solutions kicks off with news

NEW YORK—ISC Solutions kicked off at noon on Nov. 2 with the usual ceremony and an announcement of some notable news.

From the small stage outside the entrance to the trade show, Gordon Hope, chairman of the Security Industry Association’s board, announced that longtime SIA director of government relations, Don Erickson, has been chosen as SIA’s new CEO. Erickson cut the ribbon to officially open ISC Solutions 2011.

"[Erickson's] dedication, impeccable reputation and track record of success at SIA played a large role in our ultimate decision," Hope said in a statement.

As director of government relations, a post he'd held since February 2006, Erickson was SIA's chief advocate before Congress and other government agencies. He’s worked to implement key SIA public policy initiatives, such as legislation creating the GSA Schedule 84 Cooperative Purchasing Program.

The tradeshow floor looked much the same as last year, with most of the big booths in the same places, and light but steady traffic throughout the day. Beth Blake, public relations director for Reed Exhibition did not have attendance figures, but said that 250 companies were represented on the show floor this year.

In the big booths up front this year were All American Monitoring, Assa Abloy, ADT Dealer program and Honeywell. Honeywell is collaborating with Anderson windows to provide what they say is a “first of its kind” system that allows security alarms to alert homeowners if their windows or doors are unlocked. Honeywell’s wireless sensors are embedded inside the locking mechanisms of a select group of windows and patio doors.The pilot project showed that homeowners like the technology for security, but also for safety on the second floor of their homes, Kevin Piel, senior product marketing manager said. “There’s also an energy efficiency piece of this,” he said, noting that there can be significant heat loss if a window is left cracked open.

At the ADT Dealer booth, Danny Garrido said the company is looking for dealers along the Eastern Seaboard. He said he’d just returned from the national dealer conference where he said dealers and ADT executives are all excited about Tyco’s plan to split into three, separate, publicly traded companies. “At the end of the day, it means more money and focus on ADT residential instead of the Tyco conglomerate … we’ll be able to control our own destiny.”

Next to ADT was the Honeywell Fire Group. Public relations manager Beth Welch said the news at this show for both Silent Knight and Fire Lite is training opportunities for dealers of both brands. “Dealers are feeling squeezed, [they’re interested in] any tools that can help them install products, faster, better and easier.”Also in the front of the hall was Speco Technologies. Laura Mastroberti was talking about the company’s new PIR cameras. “We don’t want to just capture, record and review, we want to create products that prevent crime,” she said. Speco was also showing new DVRs—one of which is capable of using Twitter as an alerting tool to keep business owners—and selected others—apprised of anything that’s going on with the DVR.

March Networks was domiciled in the ScanSource booth, where Amy Schneeberger, distribution channel account manager, was showing the companies new 3 megapixel and 5 megapixel WDR cameras and its Command Software which can handle up to 128 cameras from a single site server and 128,000 cameras from a multiple site server.

At another corner of the ScanSource booth was Sun Surveillance. Chris Phillips said the company offers “much more than solar … [it offers] cameras and wireless that are integrated into one package. All the installer needs to do is basically get the unit and stick it in a hole in the ground,” he said.

Brent Doherty of Open Options was at the show on the hunt for dealers. “We’re looking to expand into this market. We have a few dealers, but we want to add a few more,” he said.

Downstairs at the show was SecuritySpecifiers.com’s “Crunch and Learn” educational program. Founder Ray Coulombe said he was pleased with the “first ever consultant education event co-sponsored by ISC.” He said “all attendees found the experience—which included 10 non-commercial sessions, all of which qualified for AIA credits/ASIS CPP, PSP credits—extremely worthwhile.”

Coulombe said both he and attendees are looking forward to the next Crunch and Learn installment at ISC West.

At the Panasonic Booth, Seth Cirker or SituCon Systems showed reporters how his camera integrates with a classroom security system—and new at this show—how an emergency situation is broadcast to a screen on a telephone. “We’ve merged safety and security with desktop functionality,” he said.

Verint was back at the show for the first time in five years. Verint’s Courtney Mamuscia said Verint has a very big presence in the city here. “We always say you can’t get out of Manhattan without being recorded by Verint. We’re in all the bridges and tunnels.”

Mobotix America GM Steve Gorski said it was Mobotix’ first time at the show. Now based in Manhattan, it made sense for the company to exhibit, and Gorski is very glad they did. “We had a couple of really good leads today, including a significant end user who is coming to our office on Friday.”